vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to vote or wishing to change their vote? if not, on this vote the ayes are 64 and the nays are 34. three-fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn have voted in the affirmative and the motion is agreed to. under the previous order, cloture has been invoked on s. 815. the time until 1:45 p.m. will be equally divided between the two leaders or their designees. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. brown: thank you, madam president. i rise today to discuss the need to protect all americans from workplace discrimination. that vote that the presiding officer from north dakota just announced was a tremendous victory for civil rights in our country, a tremendous victory for all people, gay and straight, it will mean a more

productive workplace, it will mean better work conditions, it will mean an expansion of human rights and what's not to celebrate about that. my first -- i worked on this bill as a cosponsor starting almost 15 years ago, more than 15 years ago in the house of representatives, and i'm thrilled to have been able to vote for it today as i know 60 plus of my colleagues were and i'm hopeful that the house of representatives decides to do the same. earlier this year, madam president, people of different genders and ethnicities and age gathered outside the supreme court wanting to be there when civil rights history was made when the defense of marriage act was declared unconstitutional. clergy people in collars, students, seniors, everyone in between were there, the steps of the supreme court that morning were filled with people who represent every walk of life in our great country. so, too, must our laws. today every day far too many americans still go to work fearing they can be fired for who they can and whom they love.

this needs to stop now. it's why the senate needs to pass later today i hope the employment nondiscrimination act, the house needs to bring enda up for a vote of the it would protect lgbt americans from discrimination. it's currently legal -- this is what the public doesn't always here and what speaker boehner needs to hear -- it's legal in 29 states to descrait based on sexual orientation. think about that. 29 states in this great country with this constitution, with this bill of rights, 29 states allow gay americans to be fired solely on the basis of their sexual orientation. 2013 you can be fired for whom you love in 29 states. it's legal to do that. we have laws protecting americans from workplace discrimination based on the color of their skin, as we should, based on their religion, as we should, based on whether they're a man or woman, as we should or whether they have a disability as we should those laws in place. we should offer these same

protections to lgbt americans. we currently do not protect our workers from being fired for whom they love. it's morally wrong. we aren't living up to the basic moral standards we teach our children, the golden rule that we're to treat others as we would want to be treated. this country wasn't built on the ideals that only some people, only some people deserve equality and justice. we know that no one should be discriminated against simply because of whom -- who they are. many fortune 500 companies and small businesses have already taken steps to protect their employees because they know it's the right thing to do. a few months ago, i listened to a cincinnati-based engineer from procter and gamble discuss the importance of enda. she said simply people should be able to bring all of themselves to work, not needing to hide herself or her family in the workplace. she gets it. unsurprisingly, so does her employer procter and gamble, an

american icon. passing enda is good economic sense. it's in a competitive global economy, it's essential that businesses attract talented, hardworking employees. that's difficult to do when discrimination is allowed. if we want to create jobs and compete on a global level, then we need all workers from all walks of life to be contributing to the economy. purposefully leaving out a portion of our work force only puts us behind in that global competition. we have already made progress in the fight for equality, but we need to continue to move forward. we repealed don't ask, don't tell. this june, the supreme court held the defense of marriage act which five of my senate colleagues voted against in 1996, a few of us voted in the house against as unconstitutional. as a result, couples are able to legally marry in many states across the country. the newest of which was illinois. we must continue this progress to create a more just, inclusive nation. dr. king once said in justice, anywhere is a threat to justice

everywhere. workers fought for the right to organize, women fought for the right to vote, african-americans fought for equal justice and now lgbt americans of all backgrounds are fighting for equality. they are entitled to the support of their government of all of us in that fight. thank you, mr. president. i notice -- note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. brown: i ask unanimous consent to dispense with the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. brown: i ask unanimous consent that all time, including time during the quorum call, be equally divided between the two sides. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. brown: and i -- i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

the presiding officer: the republican whip. mr. cornyn: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be rescinded. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: during the first few years after it became the law the affordable care act was known to most americans as mainly a set of promises. americans were repeatedly told that obamacare once it began to take full effect, that coverage would expand, premiums would go down, and everyone who liked their existing health care coverage could keep it. when the president and my friends across the aisle described it this way, obamacare sounded too good to be true. unfortunately, the promises really turned out to be too good to be true.

after spending years listening to hollow assurances about what obamacare would or would not do, the past five weeks have taught us a lot, maybe just the tip of the iceberg about what the realities of obamacare actually look like. well, we've learned that no fewer than 3.5 million americans have already received cancellation notices from their insurance coverage because of the new law. we've learned that millions more will receive those same type of notices in the foreseeable future. and we've learned that the administration and, in fact, the senate knew that was going to happen in 2010. because we had a vote on a congressional review act of the regulation which would have expanded the grandfather clause and it was defeated on a partisanline vote with all

republicans voting to expand the provision and all our democratic colleagues voting against. what we learned, they launched the obamacare web site which has been perhaps the most visible image of obamacare, but they did it before they could guarantee that the information you put in it would be secure. that includes both your tax information, your social security, your health -- mental health and physical health conditions. and we've learned that yesterday secretary sebelius confirmed that the navigators which are the people hired to help people navigate the affordable care act and to sign up, that they were hired without performing any kind of background check. and yesterday to the surprise of a lot of people, secretary sebelius answered a very direct question about that. when i asked her in the finance committee, i said, is it possible that a person could be

a navigator and be a convicted felon? and she said, it's possible because there is no criminal background check. in other words, america's top health care officials believe it's possible that convicted felons could be collecting some of your most sensitive personal information. your social security number, your tax information, and sensitive medical data. and yet this administration continues to insist upon refusing a proper vetting syst system. now, it's bad enough that the web site is entirely dysfunctional but that's going to get fixed sooner or later. but the fact is that this same web site could in the interim become a magnet for fraud and identity theft. now, many of us who were skeptics about the president's extravagant promise of the -- of obamacare once implemented, we've been expressing our concerns for years about obamacare.

but i have to tell you, as skeptical as i was about obamacare when it passed the senate on christmas eve in 2009, it's even worse than many of us predicted. certainly worse than we imagined. with millions of americans getting cancellation notices from their insurance companies, we're finding out that their premiums are about to go up and not go down, it's important to remember exactly why this is happening. well, thanks to the regulations of our friends across the aisle whcontinue to support, obamacare has allowed washington bureaucrats to decide what constitutes an acceptable health insurance policy for an individual in the small group market. in other words, it's allowed washington bureaucrats to force hardworking american families to pay for health care coverage they don't want and they don't need. i've heard from my constituents

in texas who are absolutely furious and in some cases absolutely desperate about losing their coverage or being forced to pay higher premiums that they simply can't afford in order to buy coverage that they don't need. now, the underlying conceit of obamacare is that individuals and their families can't be trusted to choose the right health insurance plans for themselves so you've got it turn it over to the bureaucracy in washington to do it for them. well, some have heard us talk about a government takeover of the health care system. that's what a government takeover of the health care system looks like. when you lose the choices that should be available to you as an american citizen to make your own health care choices about what kind of policies you need at a price you can afford and you no longer can do it because of this monstrosity of a law. that's a government takeover.

the main objective of obamacare, we were told, is to provide coverage for all americans, and yet the congressional budget office has made it clear that obamacare fails even in that objective. they estimate about 30 million people will still remain uncovered by the year 2023 when obamacare has been fully implemented. 30 million people. so what, okay, explain to me again, what was the purpose of this exercise? we were going to bring costs down and cover people without insurance and you'd be able to keep what you had if you liked it? and none of that ends up being true. all of that ends up being false. as i said yesterday, the costs of obamacare far outweigh the benefits. it would have been a lot smarter for us to figure out, how do you deal with the people who are uninsured and get them insured without raising costs or

prejudicing the rights of people who had policies they already liked. well, if congress were to choose at some point to actually dismantle obamacare in its entirety, chink we ough which it to do, we ought to start over and enact an alternative health care legislation aimed at solving the problem, not creating new ones. these reforms could include revising the tax code so that individuals could buy their own health insurance on the same tax terms if it's employer provided. we would allow people to actually buy in the health care market nationally and form pools to share risks. that would help bring down the costs. it would increase competition. we also ought to expand the use of tax-free health savings accounts so people can decide, i want to buy a high deductible catastrophic health insurance policy because it's pretty cheap. in the meantime, i want to set money aside each month in a health savings account and maybe

i'll need it for health care, maybe i won't, but i get to do it tax free. and if i don't use it, i'll be able to use that as part of my retirement. we ought to expand that. and we ought to make health care price and quality information a lot more transparent 6. one otransparent. one of the most successful health care programs that i've seen pass the congress, we did -- we made some mistakes with it. we should have offset the costs of the prescription drug plan, medicare part-d, but actually it's worked better than any of us thought it would because it's not a government takeover but it created a competition between competing prescription drug companies who had to compete based on quality and price. the result is the price has gone down roughly 30% under projected costs, under projected costs when it was passed. that's the kind of transparency and choices that are produced from quality information that people -- that leaves the

choices to people individually and not gives them to government. and, yes, we ought to crack down on frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits. we've seen in texas that bringing -- reducing the -- the costs of frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits in turn helps protect against defensive medicine, where doctors make decisions, clinical decisions, based not on their best judgme judgment, medical judgment, but based on their aversion to litigation risks. and we ought to use high-risk pools to ensure that people with preexisting conditions can get covered. this is one of the biggest misrepresentations i've heard about obamacare. some of our colleagues have said, well, the only way you can get preexisting conditions covered is to take obamacare hook, line and sinker. well, that's clearly not true. virtually all of our states have high-risk programs for people with preexisting conditions. they may need to be better funded and we ought to look to try to shore them up.

but not to create more problems rather than fixing the problems we know exist. and we ought to give the states more flexibility to deal with medicaid. now, medicaid is designed as a safety net program for people who can't afford to buy their own health insurance. but i know the senator from maine is very intimately involved in this when she was at the state level and the insurance commissioner there. but medicaid unfortunate pays doctors about half of what private health insurance does to reimburse them for their costs. so many doctors have to restrict their practice and their ability to see new medicaid patients. in texas, only about a third of doctors will see a new medicare patient because they simply can't afford to do so. so we need to have additional freedom to improve medicaid and to show it up while providing competition and consumer choice to bring down costs in medicare.

mr. president, such reforms would give us a health care system with much lower costs, much better coverage, and much greater access to quality care. those are the sorts of reforms we should have embraced in 2009 and 2010 but did not. we missed our chance back then but there's no good reason we have to accept obamacare or nothing. as a matter of fact, we should take this opportunity, as we see the promises of obamacare being broken and not living up to the examinations of its strongest proponents, we ought to turn to these other sensible ways to lower costs, increase coverage and improve access. as the law's deficiencies become more and more evident, i hope my friends across the aisle will join with us, republicans and democrats alike, to replace obamacare with something better. mr. president, i yield the floor.

ms. collins: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. collins: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, we are about to make history in this chamber by passing the employment nondiscrimination act, more commonly known as enda. we will establish the principle that the right to work free from discrimination is the fundamental right of each and every american, regardless of age, race, gender, religion, disability, national origin, and now finally sexual orientation.

it has taken a long time to get to this day. more than 10 years ago, i was proud to join a lifelong champion of civil rights, the late senator ted kennedy, as the cosponsor of enda. that was back in 2002. over the years, our country has rightly taken the stand against workplace discrimination in a wide variety of forms. it is past time that we close this gap for our lgbt employees. mr. president, the time to pass this bill has come. i want to thank senators merkley and kirk for taking up the cause and for moving this bill forwa forward.

senator kirk, along with senators hatch and murkowski, led republican support for this bill during its consideration by the help committee. i also want to acknowledge the work of the chairman of the committee, tom harkin, in bringing this bill to the floor. other senators who helped to improve this bill include senators portman, ayotte, heller, hatch, and mccain in their effort to draft strong antiretaliation language. their ability, which was adopted unanimously, improves this bill by strengthening the protections for religious institutions that are legitimately exempted under enda. and i would like to thank each of those senators and others, such as senator flake, for their willingness to work with the

sponsors and cosponsors of this legislation. senator toomey also has worked hard. mr. president, all americans deserve a fair opportunity to pursue the american dream. enda is simply about the fundamental right to work and to be judged according to one's abilities, qualifications, and job performance. much of corporate america has already voluntarily embraced lgbt protections because they know that doing so helps them attract and retain the best and the brightest employees. nearly two dozen states have versions of enda. in fact, in my home state of maine, it has been the law for yearli' dick -- for nearly a de.

simply put, mr. president, enda is about fairness and workplace equality. today i am confident that the senate will affirm that principle and will say to everyone in this country that the workplace is simply no plate for discrimination. thank you, mr. president. mr. merkley: mr. president? officer the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: i ask unanimous consent for five minutes to speak to this bill. the presiding officer: is there objection? so ordered. mr. merkley: thank you, mr. president. and i -- i thank my colleague who preceded me, who has summarized the substantial bipartisan collaboration that took place to bring this bill to this point, this bill that we will -- we'll be voting on in just a few minutes. and no one has done more than

she has done to advance this conversation over many, many years. and i thank the senator from maine for those incredible efforts on behalf of ending discrimination and advancing liberty and opportunity. today the senate will vote to break the chains of discrimination that hold back millions of lgbt americans from the full promise of liberty. liberty -- the freedom to participate full until our society from the public square to the voting booth to the school, to the workplace. liberty, that quality deeply rooted in our national journey and embedded in our declaration of independence -- quote -- "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. liberty, the declared mission of our nation in the preamble to the constitution -- quote -- "we, the people, in order to form a more perfect union and

secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our prosperity do ordain and establish a constitution of the united states of america. but the march to liberty has been a long march with numerous battles along the way. the fight to end slavery that president lincoln figured so prom ineptly in. the fight to end racial discrimination. the fight to end gender discrimination. the fight to end discrimination against our seniors, and a fight that continues today with this bill to end discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. discrimination diminishes the potential of the individual and it diminishes the potential of our nation. senator ted kennedy said this succinctly when he helped introduce in 2009 a predecessor of the bill that we will be voting on today. senator ted kennedy said the

promise of america will never be fulfilled as long as justice is denied to even one among us. he spoke these words just 20 days before he passed away. and it's appropriate to quote ted kennedy because he led the fight for this bill since its first introduction in 1994. i think he would be tremendously pleased with the bipartisan vote of affirmation against discrimination that will soon be -- that we will soon be taking. along the worse of the two decades, many have helped, many have helped on this bill whose footsteps no longer echo in these halls, until all of those champions of liberty who have participated in this process i say thank you. but there are many champions of liberty still in this body who have been fighting towards this moment, and i want to make sure that i acknowledge them.

senator harkin, who championed many elements, including any discrimination against those with disabilities and who steered this bill through his committee. senator harry reid and the leadership team, which worked together to enable this moment in the calendar to have this debate and to advocate for this bill. senator tammy baldwin who brought new energy from the house and the powerful voice of her personal experience to bear on this debate. senator collins who just spoke, who has done so much for so long to make this happen. in the first two years, 2009 and 2010, the lead cosponsor and she passed the baton to senator kirk who has carried that baton forward in a most admirable way. senator murkowski and hatch joined in to help this bill come out of committee and help create

the momentum. senators portman, ayotte, heller, toomey and hatch engaged to help make sure that the religious exemption that we developed with the right hand is not taken away with the left hand, to reinforce the integrity of the title 7 religious exemption. senator flake who brought forward ideas how to make sure that the guidance would be there to help businesses understand how to implement this act. there is a lot of coalition groups that have done a tremendous amount on this. well done. every conversation like this takes advocates inside a chamber and advocates outside a chamber, but a particular acknowledgment of the human rights campaign. and there are two staff members on my team who have labored on this that i want to personally acknowledge -- scott rosenthal who carried this organizational responsibility for a number of years and -- thank you.

i ask for one more minute. the presiding officer: is there okay? without objection. mr. merkley: so a big thanks to scott rosenthal and to my legislative director jeremiah bowman who provided over these last few months this critical final organizing stage. so i look forward to this vote, this vote for liberty, this vote for freedom, this vote for opportunity, this vote for fair and just america. thank you, mr. president. the presiding officer: under the previous order, all postcloture time is yielded back and the clerk will read the title of the bill for the third time. the clerk: calendar number 184, s. 815, a bill to prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the question occurs on passage of s. 815 as amended.

a senator: i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to vote or to change their vote? if not, on this vote, the ayes are 64, the nays are 32. the bill as amended is passed.

the presiding officer: the senator from indiana. the senate will be in order. senators please take their conversations out of the chamber. mr. donnelly: thank you, mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from indiana. mr. donnelly: on veterans day, we come together to honor the brave men and women who have given so much to defend our country and protect our freedoms. i think of so many veterans. thank you, mr. president. on veterans day, we come together to honor the brave men and women who have given so much to defend our country and protect our freedoms. i think of so many veterans, including my dad, who served in the united states navy. and i want to take this opportunity to say thank you to our country's veterans and the

nearly 500,000 veterans in the state of indiana for your service to the nation. veterans day is also a chance to reaffirm our country's commitment to caring for veterans and their families. while it's important to say thank you to veterans, it is even more important to express our gratitude through action for all generations of veterans. there are several ongoing efforts in my office that i would like to share with everyone. i have been a proud supporter of the veterans history project through the library of congress and it has done an outstanding job in leading this effort. we have so much to learn from our veterans and it's vital that we record their stories and experiences for future generations. i would like to urge veterans of any conflict to contact our office if you would like to share your story. we stand ready to give hoosiers information on this important

project and, please, contact us at any time if you'd like to participate. additionally, there are hoosier veterans of vietnam and other wars who still have not received or have lost over the years their honors or their medal as that they earned for their heroism. now is the time to resolve these cases. i am so deeply honored this veterans day to be handing to four hoosier veterans, mr. michael hodgeson, mr. canard

our veterans have earned the best care we can provide and this includes access to timely and quality medical care. it is both our challenge and our priority to ensure a smooth transition and to effectively treat any health conditions linked to their service efforts. in particular, i am dedicated to addressing the problem of military and veteran suicide. if you are in need of or know of

a service member or a veteran who has challenges and who is in need, please know that seeking help is a sign of strength, not a sign of weakness, that from that strength there is always help that is available. i am also committed to addressing the backlog and benefits claims, one of the most significant challenges facing the veterans administration. wait times for benefit claims are at an unacceptably high level. in the v.a. regional office in indianapolis, hoosiers play a critical role in processing claims to eliminate the backlog. i thank them for their public service, their hard work and urge them to continue to do whatever they can to reduce that wait time so that benefits may be received more promptly. while i know the secretary of veterans affairs general sin sector i -- cinceki is fully

committed to solving this problem, more must be done. i stand with my colleagues ready to provide the v.a. the tools it needs to accomplish this goal, reduce the wait times and take even better care of our veterans. in addition to ensuring care and veterans for our veterans, i believe economic opportunity is equally important. when i asked service members what can we do for you, they always have the same answer. we just want to make sure there is a good job to come home to and a good job that can take care of our families when we do. a quality education and gainful employment gives our veterans the chance to fulfill the american dream and to help fulfill our responsibility in supporting our veterans. that's where all of us come in. as one of indiana's united states senators, i am always looking for ways to improve the transition from military to civilian life. let's make sure our trade schools and universities welcome our veterans with open arms.

to our business owners, thank you for all of the veterans you have hired, and i urge you to hire even more. veterans have many skills that can translate to a variety of positions, and they have a strong commitment to quality and service, and you can always rely on our veterans. hoosiers in every community, please welcome back our brave men and women, whether it's in your neighborhood, whether it's at the local restaurant, whether it's at your child's school or whether it's at church on sunday. on veterans day and every day, let us honor america's veterans by cherishing the freedoms they have defended. our country is grateful for all you have done for all of us. you have given us our safety, our freedom and our liberty. thank you. mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the

senator from arkansas. mr. pryor: mr. president, i rise today to talk about an important initiative that i think is extremely important, not just to my state of arkansas but really important to the entire nation, and that is manufacturing. this country is an economic powerhouse and we're certainly a manufacturing powerhouse, and so there is an important initiative that's being put together here in the senate called the manufacturing jobs for america campaign. i think so far we have maybe 21 colleagues, maybe 22 or maybe even more colleagues who are in support of this effort and i want to encourage others to look at it. we see a lot of manufactured crises here in washington. it may be the farm bill or the government shutdown or the near debt default. those are all just kind of manufactured by the congress, but i'm glad to see that we have 21 or 22 or 23 colleagues here

who are ready to turn off the my way or the highway politics and tone down the rhetoric and really focus on our number-one priority, at least what our number-one priority should be, and that is jobs and the economy, because if you -- if we didn't learn anything else from this shutdown and some of those high-wire act politics over the last few weeks, hopefully we learn that if we want to get anything done in washington, we need to work together. i think that's the bottom line, and that's what this package of bills, that's what this initiative is intending to do. so if we want to really create jobs and we really want to make a difference for the u.s. economy, we have to reach across the aisle. and, you know, there are many, many bright spots in the u.s. economy. we know that we have been through the wringer. we know how difficult this recession was. it was the hardest economic downturn of my lifetime and most of our lifetimes, the hardest economic downturnt